Mniotilta varia
Order Passeriformes
Family Parulidae
Other names: Black and White Creeper
♂ Adult male.— Streaked everywhere, except on the throat and belly, with black and white; a broad streak of white through the middle of the black crown.
♀ Adult female.— Upper parts streaked with brownish-black and white; under parts white, with obscure streakings on the sides; bill slender, slightly curved.
Nest, on the ground; generally in a depression.
Eggs, white with brown spots on the larger end.
The Black and White Warbler, or Black and White Creeper, as it was formerly called, is a common summer resident of most of New York and New England, becoming less common in the northern portion of the region and infrequent in the deep northern forests. It arrives in the latter part of April, and leaves in September. It is found in woodland, particularly where trees and bushes grow near open spaces. Here the bird may be seen following each large limb to its extremity, peering now over one side, now over the other, searching for the insects even on the under side.
When singing, the male sits on a twig, his long bill open, uttering again and again the thin, wiry notes which constitute his song, wee-see’, wee-see’, wee-see’, wee-see’. In the height of the breeding season there is often an intermediate portion of the song in a lower key. Both birds utter a chattering note when excited, but I have never heard the great variety of notes which has been attributed to this species. After a period of silence in early August, the song may occasionally be heard again.
The Black and White Warbler may possibly be confused with the Black-Poll Warbler in spring, or with the Downy Woodpecker. From the former, its manner of feeding and the broad white stripe through its crown should distinguish it; from the latter it may be distinguished by its smaller size, slender bill, and by the absence of a broad white stripe down the back. In strong light the contrast of the lustrous black and the white gives the male almost a bluish look.
Hoffmann – A Guide to the Birds of New England and Eastern New York (1904)
Distinguishing Characters
A striped black and white, creeping bird.
Length (skin), 4.70; wing, 2.70; tail, 2.00; bill, .50.[inches]
♂ Adult Male, Spring.- Crown black, a white stripe through its center and over each eye; cheeks entirely or largely black; back black striped with white; upper tail-coverts black, their outer webs margined with white; tail blackish, externally margined with gray, usually all but the central pair of feathers with white patches or margins on the inner web at the tip; wings blackish, externally edged with grayish, tertiaries and coverts black, the first margined, the latter broadly tipped with white forming two wing-bars; throat black usually with more or less white and with white stripes at either side from the base of the bill; breast and sides streaked black and white, center of the belly white.
♂ Adult Male, Fall.- Similar to adult male in Spring, but with more white on the breast and throat, the latter sometimes wholly white.
♂ Young Male, Fall.- Similar to adult male Fall, but with cheeks entirely or largely white with a black postocular streak; the throat and center of the breast white, the black streaks of the underparts being confined to the sides and under tail-coverts.
♀ Adult Female, Spring.- Similar to adult male in Spring, but above less glossy and more or less washed with brownish, particularly on the rump; the cheeks grayish or whitish with a brownish tinge sometimes extending to the sides of the throat and breast; below white, the streakings duskier, less sharply defined and confined to the sides and crissum, which, with the flanks, is usually strongly washed with brownish. Resembles young male but is less distinctly streaked below and shows brownish tinge.
♀ Adult Female, Fall.- Similar to adult female in Spring, but the brownish wash everywhere stronger.
♀ Young Female, Fall.- Not distinguishable from adult female in Fall.
Nestling.- Resembles young but black duller, brown stronger and more prevalent, especially on the breast.
The Bird and its Haunts
The Black and White Warbler may be said to be generally distributed throughout deciduous woodlands. When migrating it visits the trees of our lawns and orchards but the nature of its nesting site requires less cultivated surroundings. But wherever seen it may be known by striped markings and creeping habits. Though it may at times borrow the manners of what may be called the fluttering Warblers, they rarely adopt its characteristic method of running actively up tree-trunks, over and under limbs with all the agility of a true Creeper (Certhia) or Nuthatch. The Pine Warbler clings to the bark of trees, the Yellow-throated Warbler climbs to some extent among the upper branches but in its mode of progression none rivals the Black and White Warbler.
When flushed from the nest, the female, with tremulous wings trails painfully over the dead leaves in an evident effort to lead the intruder from her home and its contents.
“The Black and White Warbler is a bird of deciduous and mixed growth, rarely found in the dense spruce forests, and more commonly in scrubby second growth than in the big primeval timber. Not common on the higher parts of Mt. Monadnock, even where, as on the eastern slopes, – the woods are suitable. Fairly common in summer and abundant in migrations everywhere about the mountain’s base.” (Thayer, MS.)
“At Berwyn, Pa., the Black and White Warbler inhabits timbered upland, the rocky wooded hillsides and down to the damp swampy thickets whenever there are sufficient undergrowths of laurel, saplings, etc. It is at all times a woodland bird.
“I have frequently seen the male and the female carrying white grubs and white moths to their young; and feed a big lubberly Cowbird, out of the nest, as late as June 27. Another time, a female fed a young Cowbird, at large, with green grubs taken from the leaves of the chestnut and oak sapling. Three times in as many minutes she dropped morsels down its gluttonous throat, all the while exhiting the most jealous care, guarding it from harm. It was well able to fly.” (Burns, MS.)
Song
The Black and White Warbler is not a vociferous singer and its high screeping notes, to which the terms thin and wiry are commonly applied, might readily escape the notice of a person not listening for birds’ voices. The sharp pit alarm note is rapidly and loudly repeated when the birds fear for the safety of their young.
“The ordinary call-note of the species, both in fall and spring, resembles the syllable dat; it often uttered rapidly, thus: dzt-dzt-dztdzt, while the bird is creeping about the trunks and large limbs of trees. The usual song-not uttered in fall, I think-is monotonous, consisting of a single lisping syllable repeated rather rapidly, five or six times. A much rarer song I have heard in spring when much migrational activity was being shown; this is much more elaborate, and longer than the other. I heard it once in Amite County in July; when the singer may have been a breeding bird” (Allison, MS.)
“This Warbler has at least two main songs, both penetrating and perfectly smooth-toned, as well as thin and wiry. The one commonly described consists of about eight like-toned notes, in barelyseparated couplets, with a slight emphasis on the second note of each couplet: Ssee-wwee-ssee-wwee-ssee-wwee-ssee-wwee, uttered neither fast nor slowly. This song seems to be comparatively little subject to variation, though by no means free from it. The other, longer and less common song begins in the same way, but continues, after the six or eight ordinary notes, with two or three somewhat hurried repetitions of the phrase, all in a slightly richer and more liquid tone, and one or two on a slightly lower key. Thin and slight though it is, this complete song has something of a rollicking sound, and ranks very high among weak-voiced Warbler songs. The Black and White’s common call-note, small and rather sharp, is pretty easily recognizable, but it is often reduplicated into a ‘chippering’ very much like the Black-throated Green’s.” (Thayer, MS.)
Nesting Site
A depression in the ground at the base of a tree, bush, weeds, stump, rocks, etc., beneath fallen limbs, upturned roots, or in the shelter of a log.
Nest
 Bulky, composed of dead leaves, strips of grape-vine or cedar bark, or soft inner bark of other trees, grasses and rootlets and lined with hairs; sometimes more or less roofed.
Eggs
4 or 5, usually 5. Ground color of creamy white to white, heavily and profusely spotted and specked with reddish brown, chestnut, hazel and lavender, tending to form a wreath around large end, but quite evenly marked all over. Many types approach those of the Canadian and Lutescent Warblers, some few specimens exhibit small blotches. The shape is a rounded oval, less pointed than the majority of our Warblers’ eggs. Size; average, .66x.53; extremes, .72x.52, .62x.52, .69x.55, .64x.48. (Figs. 3-5.)
Frank M. Chapman – The Warblers of North America (1917)